


no matter how far i swim, i'm still in your arms

by orphan_account



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Chanyeol is a good friend, Lu Han is a sixth grade math teacher, M/M, Publisher/Journalist Baekhyun, baekhyun is trying his best, chief editor chanyeol, honestly if he was my teacher i would never fail a class again, i don't actaully know how to describe what he does, i still don't know how to tag, i'm so soft for office au's i'm sorry, just realized that i spelt 'actually' wrong i hate myself, my favorite concept is teacher lu han, the greatest friend ever, the just go with it au no one asked for but i wrote anyways, this is gonna be a long ride my friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 02:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11174895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: byun baekhyun hadn't really planned on spending the night of his wedding in a bar trying to drown his sorrows in shitty beer, but just like all major events in his life, nothing went to plan.EDIT: on major hiatus





	no matter how far i swim, i'm still in your arms

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the chanbaek just go with it au literally no one asked for but i wanted to write anyways
> 
> ALSO:  
> story title is from exo's 'one and only' wHAT A BOP  
> chapter title is from svt's 'crazy in love' anOTHER BOP
> 
> EDIT:  
> i added a bunch more to this chapter as i wasn't happy with the way it ended, so enjoy!

byun baekhyun hadn't really planned on spending the night of his wedding in a bar trying to drown his sorrows in shitty beer, but just like all major events in his life, nothing went to plan.

the day had started out innocently enough. he had woken up beside his soon-to-be-spouse, the sun shining through the window framing their face in a way that baekhyun thought should be illegal. he snuck out of bed, trying not to wake them, and walked to their kitchen. it was filled with boxes upon boxes of their shared things. as soon as the wedding tonight was over they were to move into a new house just south of seoul, and baekhyun was estatic. for once in his life, everything was going right. he had an incredible job at a publishing company where he edited and wrote music columns, he had incredible friends, though he sometimes doubted their sanity, and he had a loving fiancé.

warm arms snuck their way around his waist, breaking him out of his thoughts, and a sudden weight was pressed up against his back.

"g'morning, my love," they mumbled. "excited for the big day?"

baekhyun turned around, back to the counter, to face his fiancé and took in their appearance. messy bed hair, a faint blush on their cheeks, and a small smile. to top it all off, all they were wearing was an old tshirt of his and athletic shorts.

"couldn't be more ready," he grinned. "breakfast?" the other nodded sleepily, and baekhyun set to work preparing a small breakfast. there wasn't much to work with equipment-wise as most of their kitchenware was already packed away in preparation for the move, but he managed to salvage some things that hadn't made the cut. rations in the fridge were slim to none, as the last couple of days had been spent at dinner parties and wedding rehearsals that provided food for them, but he was able to find some eggs, vegetables, and a jug of questionable milk in order to make a omelette of sorts.

the next couple of minutes were spent in comfortable silence, only broken by the cracking and of an egg and the occasional chiming of his partner's phone. they ate without talking either, and just sat around their small dining table, forks clinking against plates. stretching, his partner stood up and announced that they were going to take a shower. they put their phone on the table and placed their dishes in the sink, pressing a chaste kiss on his temple on their way out of the room. baekhyun leaned back in his chair and reached up to turn on the radio sitting on the countertop, twisting the dial until he found a song he liked. 

as the ending chords of got7's 'let me' faded away and a seventeen song started up, baekhyun stood up and grabbed his dishes to bring them to the sink where his partner had left theirs, and started to wash them as he swayed to the beat of the song. baekhyun had never thought of himself as a great singer, but he knew he sure as hell wasn't bad. his mother had always told him that he was good, signing him up for choir groups and talent shows. at one point, it had even been his dream to become an idol himself, but he later found that he'd rather work in the background of the idol scence than be front and center. nonetheless, he could never quite shake the feeling of wanting to burst into song whenever he was happy. and he was so, so, happy.

so, as the buildup to the chorus of 'pretty u' resonated throughout the tiny kitchen, baekhyun found himself singing along. throwing all sense of dignity out the window, he began to get into the song. belting out a particularily passionate "i want to pick up and gather all the pretty words for you", he picked up a small pile of dishes and shimmied towards the pile of boxes in the corner across the kitchen. he spun to avoid a chair and slid across the floor dramatically, skidding to a halt in front of the sink in order to take the next pile. he moonwalked, or at least tried to, towards the boxes again. 

then the buzzing started. he tried to ignore it, he really did, but the constant noise kept cutting through the tranquility of his moment so he closed the final cardboard box and taped it shut. grabbing his fiancé's phone off the table, he turned it over and saw a long list of messages on the lockscreen from someone with the name my love. seeing as baekhyun was the only one he knew to be called my love by his partner, and he was right here without his phone and definitely not texting his partner, this was definitely someone else. and he was definitely pissed. 

there goes that moment of tranquility.

taking a deep breath, baekhyun ran all of the possible scenarios through his mind. one, this could be old messages from him that are just now coming through. however plausible this theory was, he didn't recognize any of what was being said to be his style of texting, so that was out.

two, my love could be a family member such as their mother, or sister, or a friend who set that name as a joke. this was a reasonable theory, as most of their friends liked to joke around and it was no secret that baekhyun's fiancé called him my love.

three, this is someone else completely and his fiancé is cheating on him. not possible, right? yeah, there was no way they were cheating on him, they're both in love with each other, there was no way. pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind, he put their phone back on the table and put the tape roll on the counter. as he walked out of the kitchen, he paused in front of the bathroom, contemplating asking his partner about the texts. shaking his head, he sighed deeply and chastied himself again for doubting them.

the warm steam from the shower seeped into the hallway, and as he walked away from the bathroom baekhyun could hear faint singing over the running water. walking into their shared room, he pulls off the thin sweater he's wearing and steps in front of the mirror. as much as he tried to ignore the lingering thoughts of his otherwise loyal fiancé cheating on him, they were muddling his brain. there wasn't anything wrong with him, was there? sure, he may not be as fit as he used to be when he'd done hakpido, and he had a little bit of extra fat around his stomach. he may laugh too loud and long at jokes that weren't necessarily funny, or maybe tried too hard and was overbearing, but it would be a cold day in hell before byun baekhyun was anything but loyal.

-

when his partner finally got out of the shower, baekhyun was still standing in front of the mirror. he didn't even look up when they walked into the room, and avoided their eyes by turning away from the mirror and walking towards the bathroom. they were both due for pre-wedding preparation in about two hours, and baekhyun brushed off his slight annoyance as nervousness when they asked him if anything was wrong. he supposes he should be thankful that his partner had insisted on an american style wedding, so they didn't have to go through any of the long traditional korean ceremonies. his parents had been a bit disappointed, but ultimately got over it when baekhyun's partner explained that they didn't need a big fancy traditional ceremony to be any more in love than they already were. having a big ceremony doesn't determine your relationship's worth, they'd said, and baekhyun had just nodded along, not really sure if his opinion was even relevant at this point.

stepping into the shower, baekhyun willed his brain to stop thinking negatively and return to the feeling he'd felt in the kitchen. _go back to being happy, what's wrong with you? you're getting married for christ's sake, at least try to seem excited._

the water was turning colder and colder by the minute, but baekhyun's bones felt heavy and he couldn't find it in himself to move. he kept thinking about those fucking text messages. he kept re-reading them over and over again. "can't wait to see you later!" the first one had read. "text me when it's all done okay?" the following. he hadn't read the rest of them, but they were probably all along the same lines. what had they meant? who had sent them? baekhyun didn't know what to think, he didn't know what to do.

he dressed quietly and combed his hair without looking in the mirror, as it would be re-styled later in the day. he fiddled with the ring on his left hand and stared at it for a minute. they were both so young, was this really the best descision? getting married this early wasn't unheard of, but baekhyun wondered if it was really the best choice for him. he was only twenty-one, he had a lot of years ahead of him. he wondered if his parnter was really who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with? did they even want to spend the rest of their life with him?

these thoughts were flying through his head as he made his way back to the bedroom, but were interupted when he heard a hushed voice coming through the door. quietly pressing himself against the door, he listened to what seemed like a very rushed conversation between his partner and someone who was on the phone. he could only hear his partners side of it, but what he did hear broke his heart in two.

_"i know, i know, i'll sneak out after the ceremony, he'll never know."_

_"i miss you too."_

_"after this, we'll never be hurting for money again, don't worry."_

_"can you put her on the phone for me?"_

_"hyunnie-ah, how are you baby? are you treating mummy well?"_

_"i know hyunnie-ah, i can't wait to see you either! i love you lots! tell mummy i love her too!"_

he pressed his face into his hands and sunk to the floor in front of the door. it was all a lie.

his fiancé had another life. they had a girlfriend (wife?), and a child for god's sake. his fiancé didn't love him, and from what he could tell, they were only using him for his money. he didn't even know what to think, his heart was racing a mile a minute and his thoughts were clouded. the same sentence kept repeating itself over and over. _he'll never know, he'll never know, he'll never know -_

he needed to get out of there.

baekhyun pulled himself up off the floor and walked slowly towards the kitchen. he paused at the coffee table and gazed down at the pictures of him and his fiancé scattered around, waiting to be put in boxes. willing himself not to cry, he grabbed the nearest one to him and picked up a sharpie from the top of one of the boxes. blinking back tears, he wrote and he wrote. his fiancé had yet to emerge from their room, but he didn't care anymore. he finished his short note and stuck it to the fridge. he heard his fiancé walk into the bathroom once again, most likely to do their hair or brush their teeth, and he walked back into the bedroom. he grabbed the suitcase he had packed with his favourite clothes and some of his personal belongings and carried it into the front hallway. he slipped on the nearest pair of shoes to him and grabbed his coat from the hook. putting his phone and keys into his pocket, he took one last look around the apartment and sighed. was he making the wrong decision? it seemed almost too rash and extreme, but he was going to stand by it. if he really thought about it, he realized that he really hadn't been happy in his relationship for awhile, it had just taken this happening for him to really take notice. pushing his shoulders back, he held his head high as he exited his apartment one last time. the only difference from what he had imagined it would be like when he did so and the reality, was that he was alone.

-

he took the bus to a friends place to stay the night and wound up spending a month couch surfing before finally finding an apartment of his own not too far from work. he hadn't heard from his ex-fiancé since he walked away from the life they had been about to enter together, but he supposes that it's for the best.

looking back at it now, he realizes how wrong his relationship was. towards the end of it, he was so in love, he'd turned a blind eye to the blatant one-sided attraction in the relationship. just when had his partner fallen out of love with him?

he supposes there was a small change he'd unconciously noticed about a month before he'd proposed. he'd knocked on the door to his parnter's apartment excited as could be about getting a huge promotion at work, one that would guarantee him at least three years of solid work with one of his favourite idol companies. his then partner hadn't really seemed that interested in the promotion until baekhyun had offhandedly mentioned that the promotion also came with a hefty pay check each month, one that was almost double what he'd been earning then. however, for him it was never about the money, it was always about his creative freedom; this job would guarantee him that. his parnter had always told him that they felt the same way, and totally respected his point of view.

funnily enough, as soon as the money was mentioned, they were all ears.

"tell me more about the job, baekhyun. it sounds interesting."

"oh, well, i'd be working with one of the idol companies in the heart of seoul. it's a super hard company to get into, but i'm hoping i'll do well and they'll like my work. i'll be helping publish -like proof-reading and such - articles for their website, profiles for the artists and all. of course, i won't be in charge of programming the actual websites," he had laughed quietly, "god knows i'm hopeless in that retrospect. i'll just edit the article and give it to whoever's in charge and they'll take care of it. what i'm really-"

"what about the pay check you mentioned? you said it'd be a lot more than you're earning right now?" they'd seemed eager to hear what he had to say about that aspect.

"well yeah, but that's not-"

"that's good. i knew your writing would pay off, it's finally doing something useful."

"thanks, i guess. but you know i never did this for the money, i always-"

"i know, i know, you and your creative freedom. i just think it's nice that you're finally going to be earning enough so that we're not just getting by. in fact, you're going to earn so much that i think we could classify as rich in less than a month." it'd never really registered to him how weird it was that his partner had kept refering to the money that baekhyun was going earn as theirs, even though they had a job of their own, and they didn't even live together yet. 

less than a week later, his parnter had convinced him to move in with them, to a fancy apartment that neither of them would have been able to afford, and still really couldn't.

"don't worry," they said. "it'll all be payed off when we start seeing those checks from your job."

three weeks later, they got engaged. 

one week after that, his partner decided they were tired of the apartment they had just bought, and decided they wanted to move again after the marriage.

two months later, baekhyun left.

and he still doesn't regret it.

**Author's Note:**

> jdsklfjskldjflskd i'm so excited to continue this aye
> 
> plus i apologize for the lame lil' dance scene but that's kinda how i imagine baekhyun would be when he's super happy idk


End file.
